"Five years after Microsoft sparked a firestorm with new volume licensing and upgrade programs, customers are still struggling with the system many say is delivering less than promised. The programs have not adequately addressed the complexities of licensing, stemmed cost increases or provided a simplified upgrade path, customers say."

"The Java Native Interface lets developers mix Java code with C or C++ source code. It provides access to platform-specific features that Java does not provide, so that Java applications on Mac OS X can take advantage of the wide range of powerful Apple-only technologies to provide the best possible user experience. Using the JNI, your Java application can access a user's Address Book, make Spotlight queries, take advantage of Core Image and Core Video, and leverage many other rich features unique to Mac OS X. This step-by-step tutorial explains how to use the JNI to integrate Java and C code using a single Xcode project with multiple targets."

FOX v1.6.0 has been released with the biggest major new feature being Unicode support but also with a raft of new system code such as extra threading and I/O APIs. This should be viewed as an interim release as unicode keyboard input is as yet unfinished.

Studio33 has released part II in its series of articles looking at the current state of Haiku. "In the previous part I talked about the achievements of the Haiku Team since the project was first started, this time I will go deeper into the work that has been done lately and which parts need serious attention in the coming months." Screenshots o'plenty, boys and girls.

Sony's PS3, scheduled to be released near the end of this year, has been slated to have a hard drive that will support and will even include preinstalled Linux. This could be a breakthrough event not just for Linux but also for other alternative operating systems as well. The PS3 will almost certainly sell millions and millions of units, providing a unique opportunity for people to try something that would be more difficult on their regular computer.

News has leaked that Microsoft has enabled support for OpenGL to work with the Vista compositing desktop, as of the most recent preview build. Previously Microsoft's plan had been to force OpenGL to be translated to Direct3D, reducing performance by 50% and locking the OpenGL version to 1.4 only.

"Apple have shown some absolutely stellar benchmarks with the Core solo and Core Duo processors outperforming their G4 based predecessors by quite a considerable margin in most areas, heavily vectorised applications are seemingly the only exception. The story is not quite so clear with the G5 based iMac but there is a difference even there. These benchmarks can be considered no doubt as justification for the decision to switch to x86 processors. However, in typical Apple style there is some slight of hand, in particular as regards timing of the switch. Making the transition 6 months early is no mistake, it was absolutely critical to get those benchmarks."

Linus Torvalds has released Linux 2.6.16 today. "Not a lot of changes since -rc6, but there's various random one-liners here and there (a number of Coverity bugs found, for example), and there are small MIPS and PowerPC updates. It looks like both Fedora and SuSE end up using a kernel that is pretty close to this 2.6.16 release, so let's all hope it's good. Give it a good testing, please."

"One of the beauties that comes with Mac OS X is the Keychain that helps you manage your authorization needs as it acts as a depository of passwords. By using the Keychain you don't need to remember a myriad of passwords but rather just the Keychain password. Don't worry about losing your passwords either, since the Keychain can be backed up with ease."

"Now that the mystery is finally resolved, and we’ve seen the Origami from a number of companies at CeBIT 2006, it’s about time we face reality. The Origami needs no introduction, so I’ll get right to the point. Just like the Tablet PC, Microsoft’s Origami doesn’t stand a chance as a mass market device, and for good many reasons. Let’s break them down, shall we."

Does a reinvented Novell matter anymore? As the company prepares to trumpet its focus on serving the open enterprise at its annual BrainShare conference this week, industry observers remain mixed on whether the former networking powerhouse has a relevant place in today's corporate software market.

"Become more productive with your own code and others by utilizing Eclipse's syntax highlighting, code completion, and other amenities. It runs on any UNIX platform with a JRE (1.4 or newer) and an SWT port, such as Linux, Solaris, AIX, and HP-UX. It's easy enough to start a new project using Eclipse or to import an existing Eclipse project, but how do you bring existing code into the IDE? And what if you need to get an existing project compiling right away without modifying its existing makefile or configure script? Read along for the answer to all of these questions."

In a bid to simplify its product lines and get an edge on competitors, Cray plans a multi-year strategy to unify four different supercomputing technologies into a single, versatile machine. The company plans to announce the concept Monday with its multi-year, three-phase "adaptive supercomputing" plan, said Jan Silverman, senior vice president of corporate strategy.

After receiving several comments to his November 2005 article on hating UNIX, David Chisnall offers his responses and further insight on his continuing disdain.